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A new poll reveals that an unprecedented number of Americans believe that the Federal government has garnered too much power.

According to the results of a recent Gallup poll, 60 percent Americans feel that the Federal government has too much power, 1 percentage point above the previous high recorded in September 2010. Since 2005, at least half of Americans have held the same view.

While Republicans remain the most likely to say the government is too powerful, Democrats and independents have each grown more likely to say government is too powerful this year. Among Republicans, 81 percent say that the Federal government is too powerful compared to 65 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats.

“Americans — specifically Republicans and Democrats — have become more divided in their perceptions of federal power since the end of the Bush administration,” Gallup reports. “Within a year of Obama’s inauguration, Republicans’ and Democrats’ views on the issue diverged dramatically, leaving a gulf between the parties that remains today — though the current 43-point partisan gap is smaller than the 53-point gap measured in the fall of 2009.”

Very few respondents to the poll (about 7 percent overall) feel the government lacks power.

Gallup began tracking American perceptions of government power regularly in 2002.